auto text, why won't it work or only works sporadically ...

Anonymous
2010-10-24T20:58:44+00:00

moved from word 2000 to word 2010 and now auto text which was copied over works only occasionally and randomly ... i have done the word 2010 tutorial ... googled ad nauseum about it and i can not figure it out ... in word 2000 i added the auto text and when typing a document if i started typing the words of the auto text a greyish box showed up with the entire text, i hit enter and kept typing ... it is hit or miss whether the box will show up ... i have tried adding new auto text and that does not work at all ... what am i doing wrong ???

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments

58 answers

Sort by: Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-05-01T22:02:56+00:00

    i originally started this thread and there is no resolution ... i have tried every single thing suggested in this thread (plus excessive googling and i even paid the geek squad three hour minimum for them to say they do not know) and auto text does not work ... word 2010 was a giant waste of money as there is no support for the product other than people who seem to want to get nasty on here !!! i got rid of word 2010 and re-installed word 2000 !!! not having auto text added almost a full workday of work which really made me angry ... i personally find it offensive, having to use software over ten years old cuz the brand new one DOES NOT WORK and microsoft OFFERS ZERO SUPPORT !!!

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-05-01T22:18:16+00:00

    Sorry, but I really did not know what you thought it meant for AutoText to be working.

    You didn't break any rules. you are just less likely to get helpful responses posting at the end of an older thread, even one that hasn't been resolved, than you are if you post a new one.

    I would recommend that you carefully read Stefan Blom and Graham Mayor's posts. If anyone in the user community has an answer it would be one of those two.

    Basic thoughts seem to be that AutoText has been combined with the other building blocks and AutoCorrect which may be causing confusion in the characters needed to cause a tooltip (pop up) prompt.. If you somehow get rid of the rest of the building blocks you might be able to lessen the problem.

    I asked about the F3 key because that will bring up AutoText in my experience, if you have the needed prompt characters.

    It may even be distinguishing between AutoText and other kinds of building blocks so that if there are ambiguous entry names, it goes for the AutoText. This paragraph is speculation, not the result of knowledge or experimentation. I know that it does bring up AutoText entries stored in global templates that will never generate a tooltip.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-05-01T22:20:11+00:00

    i originally started this thread and there is no resolution ... i have tried every single thing suggested in this thread (plus excessive googling and i even paid the geek squad three hour minimum for them to say they do not know) and auto text does not work ... word 2010 was a giant waste of money as there is no support for the product other than people who seem to want to get nasty on here !!! i got rid of word 2010 and re-installed word 2000 !!! not having auto text added almost a full workday of work which really made me angry ... i personally find it offensive, having to use software over ten years old cuz the brand new one DOES NOT WORK and microsoft OFFERS ZERO SUPPORT !!! 

    I still use Word 2003 for some purposes, but this isn't one of them. I know my AutoText entries names well enough to be able to type them and press the F3 key to pull them into the document.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2012-06-20T07:07:54+00:00

    Once i press F3, it is working. However, it does not prompt with auto text name so that you can just press Enter to insert it. Why only certain computer are having this issue? Please advise. Thank you.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  5. Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-06-20T12:14:23+00:00

    In Word 2010 the AutoComplete tooltips only appear if the AutoText is stored in the normal template or the attached template. If stored elsewhere, F3 still works.

    Note: You’ve posted your question or problem in response to an old question and answers. Your computer and Word configuration is unlikely to be the same as that of the original poster. Posting this way means you may not get as good a response as you would if you started a new question.

    When you ask your own question you give information about the version of Word and your operating system that can make a difference in the answer.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments